COMPLETE INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT: CHAD GABLE TALKS KING OF THE RING, WWE SINGLES HOPES, NXT ON THE USA NETWORK AND MORE

On Friday August 30th, I sat down with WWE star Chad Gable for an interview about WWE bringing back King of the Ring, WWE NXT moving to the USA Network, his own work as a singles star, the possibilty of "Shorty G" in his future and more. Here is the complete transcript of that interview.

Mike Johnson: Hey everybody, it's Mike Johnson. We're sitting here with WWE Smack Down star, Chad Gable, who is one of the quarter finalists in the 2019 King of the ring tournament. Sir, how are you today?

Chad Gable: I'm doing well. Thank you for having me.

Mike Johnson: So this is the first time we've spoken. So I want to first of all say thank you for sitting down with us. King of the Ring was a bit of a surprise when WWE announced it was returning. Thoughts on the return of the tournament?

Chad Gable: It was a surprise to me too, my friend. I just, sometimes we find out when the fans do and I was totally fine with that. Because once I saw my name in there, I was very excited, as you can imagine. For a guy like me that is looking to break out and find an opportunity as a singles guy, I can't really think of a better way, you know what I mean, than a tournament like this. And to bring back some of the nostalgia for the fans as well. And so far, I think they had been just doing this awesome job of, you know, putting on some of the best matches we've had on TV, on Raw Smack Down in a long time. So, it's pretty great.

Mike Johnson: Obviously you love pro wrestling, you've been in the WWE system for a long time. What are your memories of King of the Ring? And what are some of the former winners that kind of ... maybe you looked at and studied when you were getting ready for the tournament, or winters that kind of made that impression on you before you stepped into the pro wrestling world?

Chad Gable: Yeah, I know everybody kind of points to like the stone cold moment as being one of the famous ones. But for me it's guys like Brett Hart, who went through the tournament and put on these various like different matches, you know, on that night, and like against different opponents with different styles.

Chad Gable For me, as a fan of more the technical side of wrestling, and just the sports side of it, a guy like Brett is somebody that I'll always look up to. And him just kind of charging through that thing like an athlete almost, you know what I mean? At the top level, was something that was, to me, really inspiring and just something I was drawn to.

Mike Johnson: Now you mentioned trying to find yourself, and position yourself as a stronger singles talent. Obviously, you worked with Bobby Roode and with Jason Jordan in tag teams and NXT, and then the main roster. How different, or how different or how trying is it to kind of make that transition from being part of a tag team where you want everybody to have their moment and you want to find a definitive voice, and then standing on your own two feet in this huge WWE bubble where there's so many characters. How, how hard is it to kind of try and find your voice and find your footing?

Chad Gable: It's hard, man. This place... you know, it's a snake pit. You got to find a way to make your mark. And once Jason went to do his thing with Kurt on raw, I was really excited to kind of have my chance to break out as a singles guy because I did fall in love with tag team wrestling down at NXT. Like, it was something I never thought I would kind of appreciate on the level that I've found myself doing. But we would just have so much fun and so much success at the tag team stuff.I always saw myself as a singles guy, and so when I finally got that chance, I was very excited and I had ... some matches I was really proud of early on, with like AJ Styles and like Rousseff on Smack Down. And since that, you know, I've had a few matches with guys like Jack Gallagher even on 205, which is just opportunities I'm just trying to take advantage of. I think people are aware that I'm fully capable of kind of delivering as a full time singles guy, and being one of the top stars, but I think they just haven't seen enough for me yet to like really get them to buy in. And that's what I'm looking to do here in this tournament, I can't think of kind of a better way to do that and break out. So it's a big opportunity for me, and it's not one that I want to waste.

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